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I think specialties are supposed to feel constraining, or if you want a different take on it, guiding. If you don't want to use a specialty, no problem! Just pick the feats you want.

As some have pointed out, we don't have an adventure in this playtest packet. However, we will release one next week. Until then, we have some encounter creation rules in the DM Guidelines section of the packet and we would love to see what people come up with and get their feedback on...

I haven't seen maneuvers yet, but lets not jump the gun. Just because the same word is used as what's in the Bo9S doesn't mean that these maneuvers they're working on for D&D Next will be encounter powers. Maybe they'll be something that can augment a normal attack, or maybe they'll be something...

Taking everything together (these forums, our forums, other fansites, blogs, twitter, FB, etc.) things are definitely leaning toward the positive and constructive side. With that said, there are people unhappy with one aspect or another of the playtest material. We are definitely paying...

You can write and share thoughts on your playtest experience as long as you're not quoting the text or hosting up portions of the entirety of the playtest packet. So if you wanted to talk about a creature for example, you could name it, say that it had a cool power that moved people around or...

We're definitely paying attention to the feedback here, the wizards community, other fansites/forums, blogs, twitter, facebook, google+, and more. It is interesting how different social groups are responding differently, but not really surprising :) While we are looking at feedback everywhere...

So keep in mind that themes so far have been explained as feat delivery systems. If you can get tank-like holding an enemy from a theme, then it sounds like you can get it from a feat. Using a feat to get a sticky/tank like ability seems cool to me. As to the magic thing, I know Mike and the...

Nah, blame me for not asking it - that's totally fine :) The question does come up and they've tried to answer it at panels and such, but I don't think we have enough specifics to really get into the meat of it. It is something I know we'll be seeing in the playtest though, and something we'll...

I didn't really moderate out any questions - I had almost 900 questions and comments in there and I tried to find the ones that were asked by a few different people and ones that seemed interesting. There were questions about future products and exact release dates that I avoided because we just...

On that note, it looks like it's been fixed and up right now.

Yeah, sorry for not popping in here sooner guys - I get swamped early Monday with some reports I do. As soon as we get this fixed I'll pop in to let you know, though I'm sure somebody here will beat me to it :P

I'm not sure if most groups will. There are quick games, players who just want to play an archtype, new players and I'm sure all sorts of other games/players that might go the easy route or just picking a theme and background. I don't think themes and backgrounds are meant to reduce play...

Thanks much to everyone for all the awesome questions! I grabbed them all and I'm going to work with the team to figure out what we can/can't answer and which of these might be better for a larger D&D Next conversation or a Legends and Lore article. So while we won't be able to get these all...

I didn't mean to imply that the OGL topic isn't something that the R&D team is/will be/would be involved with. I only meant to say that it's not all about game design and we're not at the point where we're ready to talk about those sorts of plans.

A quick message from WotC, which is reaching out to the EN World community this week for its pool of "Rule of Three" questions. Rule of Three is a weekly article on D&D Insider where Rodney Thompson answers three questions - usually about D&D Next, occasionally about 4th Edition. Hey all...

With this idea, I don't see why backgrounds and themes couldn't be optional. If that's the case (Rob didn't say one way or the other, but it makes sense to me that it's optional) then you could easily run a game without themes and backgrounds which would leave out feats and skills.

The question that a couple of you have posed on what should the suggested backgrounds/themes for each class cover is an interesting one. I was running with the idea that the suggested theme and background (or maybe there are a few different suggested combinations based on different player...

It's a good question. I assume that there would be a theme/background selection suggestion for each class that would start the player off on the simpler side of the ease of play spectrum. If the player wants to get more compleximicated, they can mix and match themes and backgrounds or build...

I was running with the assumptions that theme/backgrounds would have character options linked to them that you get as you level, and that maybe in this made up example you would get a familiar at some level down the road. If you wanted to take that same example and instead plan out how you would...

I wanted to make sure I wasn't running around putting words in Rob's mouth so I pinged him with some questions and got a quick response from him. I wanted to share that here for further clarification. Me Rob So there's that. Hopefully this helps flesh out the ideas that Rob was getting at...